Learners’ Perception of EFL Teachers' Behavior and Knowledge

Abstract

This study investigated the importance that students accord to behavior and knowledge of teachers. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire with 28 items, fourteen of them, i.e., the odd ones, representing knowledge, and the other fourteen, i.e., the even ones, representing the behavior of teachers, was designed. The values of responses to each question ranged from 1 to 5. One represented the least important and five represented the most important. Copies of the questionnaire were distributed among 26 B1 (pre-intermediate level) prep school students (17 females and 9 males) who had already spent five months with six different teachers at English prep-school at Uskudar University in Istanbul, Turkey. The data were collected in the second week of the third module in the second semester in 2017-2018 academic year. The collected data were then fed to SPSS. A Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test revealed that there was not a significant difference between the importance of knowledge and behavior of teachers from the points of view of the students who attended the study. A Chi-square test also indicated that gender does not play a significant role in assigning importance to teachers’ behavior or knowledge by students. The findings of this study could be revealing to teachers.